Guys. No doubt that the firmware has a problem properly identifying a critical problem. To expect the software to have every message in the world to describe what was detected as a problem is unrealistic. I would consider that this problem of a 80s percent battery triggering critical as real. Thus something caused the battery voltage to dip and trigger the low or critical flag. A gust of wind, a dragonfly, a fan lockup, pick what you want. But, the firmware needs more filtering. The battery voltage dip needs to occur more than one sample instance. In fact, it needs to be practically constant. And what about overheating battery? What if the message for overheating is critical battery level? Anyway, there is a problem with anafi. This doesn't occur on my bebop2's. Or my disco's. But lipo batteries are not electronics. They are chemical energy sources that resemble all life, and are subject to many problems and illnesses that we are learning first hand. For example, in the space program, we maintain the temperature and humidity, and pressure, and electromagnetically shield, items like batteries to prevent deteriorization other than age. Making or keeping the performance of such things, predictable. Hell, my drones sit in my hot car. And cold car. Its better than out in the rain. WHich i did once. It corroded a bebop2's camera support. But it still worked until i lost it a mile from here. If you think water is bad, consider soybeans, or cotton. Once the battery is dead, I cant find it. The harvester can.
Anafi in the Ohio river
- Thread starter Fmaxii
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One more comment. About not finding drones. I bought strobes. Stick on self contained. And reflective tape. Because after loosing 2 bebop2's and two disco's over the years i figure i need all the help i can get. Unfortuneatley, The strobes dont last that long, not even until dark. Ive been trying to find a bebop2 with my anafi in a soybean field for weeks now. The strobe is also a 1000 lumen light so i was hoping that the reflective tape would be bright enough for the anafi camera to pick up at 25 feet up. No joy... yet anyway. I want a chirp device. Chirp every 5 seconds or so. That sounds 30 minutes after i set it and then chirps until the battery is dead. Drones should have it built in. Because if anything goes wrong, it is gonna land.... somewhere... guaranteed.
That's really a shame, I also am a big fan of your work. Take some binoculars with you as they may helpCheers i appreciate that. As for the trees its a bit of both, it went down here: 53°16'22.5"N 2°45'56.0"W The bit that makes it more difficult is the drone losing connection before it hit the trees. The last GPS location might not be as precise but with the dark evenings i need to wait until next weekend to have another look. The battery's are both around 2 years old and they were charged 48 hours before the flight and the drone went down within 5 minutes of take off
Wishing you the best of luck
Jagerbomb52
Well-known member
Sorry to hear of the loss of your Anafi. When mine spent the winter up in a tree it was not till the spring that I found it and it works just fine to this day so don't give up on finding it. If it did indeed auto land it will be very close to where it's last known position is. Its pretty amazing on how accurate that can be.Thanks very much. Its a shame i cant fly for now but we'll see what the future brings
It could be laying flat across some branches which will make it even harder to see.
Well good luck
Gipsz Jakab
Well-known member
It’s very scientific and very professional, but one thing you forget: These cases multiplied after the battery firmware update.
Dirk_ANAFI
Well-known member
I saw reports about crashes after/before every FW update over the last 2 years. Means: I didn't see a multiplying of crashes after a certain update.
Jagerbomb52
Well-known member
I agree.
Like I said many times if it was firmware related these things would be dropping from the sky like turkeys. I had one battery this week that would not calibrate the gimbal. When I put in another battery it calibrated just fine. After that the first battery worked just fine. Gremlins sometimes pop up in electronic stuff. Hopefully it was just a glitch and I will have no more problems.
As to the accurate last known position, I would like to share my cases of "fall off the sky".
I have had "fall off the sky" 3 times without drone damaged but lost one battery as:
1. Accidentally tap the landing button over a docking area about 30M above, the drone luckily land on the dock ground not in the water but the battery ejected out (not found, might be lost to water).
2. The drone fell off the sky into a row bushes which was about 1 meter (accurate enough) away from the "last known position" data, I got back the drone next morning under the bushes, luckily it was raining afterwards not before.
3. Because the accidents are all happened with the same battery and all "fall off the sky" at 20% residue battery, so this time I tested to fly with it over a grass area and exactly it fell off like a rock at 20% battery.
After the above, I have noticed no matter what I fly this battery always falls off at the same "%", but this battery is a new one bought locally in July, so I think this battery might originally has quality problem (now, fully charged: 95%, auto power off: 20%, maximum battery capability: 88%, firmware version: 1.0.15.0).
I have 2 fleets as 3 Anafi and 2 Gopro Karma for my photography, my personally opinion on these 2 models is that I have more confident on Karma flying which is stable and have safety concern provided, although it has been out dated comparing to the other drones.
The Karma + Hero7 photos shot in drizzle:
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ROBANAFI
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Look what was found yesterday
Luckily my Auntie lives near to where it was lost so she put it on a few local Facebook groups and it had already been found. I just need to pick it up after work and see if it still works and then try to fix the leg!
Jagerbomb52
Well-known member
I was just about to post a "sorry to hear" message .... and then scrolled to the bottom and saw the good news! Great that it was found and that people are honest. Hope you get it fixed OK.
Earlier this year, having read of so many "fall from the sky" stories I realised it was making me too nervous about enjoying flying my Anafi. So I bought 3 new batteries, which seems like a lot of expense, but it did mean I got to enjoy flying over the sea and lochs this summer with much less worry. I know it shouldn't be necessary, but I'm glad I got the new batteries. My 4 batteries from 2019 are now only used for test flights and "low altitude over grass" type things
Earlier this year, having read of so many "fall from the sky" stories I realised it was making me too nervous about enjoying flying my Anafi. So I bought 3 new batteries, which seems like a lot of expense, but it did mean I got to enjoy flying over the sea and lochs this summer with much less worry. I know it shouldn't be necessary, but I'm glad I got the new batteries. My 4 batteries from 2019 are now only used for test flights and "low altitude over grass" type things
Gipsz Jakab
Well-known member
Gremlins do not exist, only poorly written firmware ... These firmware are not fully prepared for the hardware events that occur ...
Before one update, gimbal was always well initialized and then became uncertain after the update. Many times I have to restart. No need to replace the battery, just turn it off and on again ...
This was not caused by battery firmware - battery firmware handles charging and reporting - it counts power in and power out, produces battery health and a battery level from this data.
The battery cells are connected directly to Anafi via the 4 power pins - which is fed directly in to the motor board. This is where the warning and critical alarms are generated, by the Anafi.
My biggest concern and my interest in this is - I have never seen a report of this type of critical auto-landing before with a battery level so high.
The concern is that Parrot with latest firmware have made the Anafi much more sensitive to battery voltage to try and mitigate against 'falling from the sky'.
Maybe they think the battery voltage sagging too much can cause this, so they are triggering critical landing earlier in the voltage curve than they did before - in return this has made the Anafi sensitive to battery voltage ripples which are perfectly normal for reasonably used battery!!
The battery cells are connected directly to Anafi via the 4 power pins - which is fed directly in to the motor board. This is where the warning and critical alarms are generated, by the Anafi.
My biggest concern and my interest in this is - I have never seen a report of this type of critical auto-landing before with a battery level so high.
The concern is that Parrot with latest firmware have made the Anafi much more sensitive to battery voltage to try and mitigate against 'falling from the sky'.
Maybe they think the battery voltage sagging too much can cause this, so they are triggering critical landing earlier in the voltage curve than they did before - in return this has made the Anafi sensitive to battery voltage ripples which are perfectly normal for reasonably used battery!!
Jagerbomb52
Well-known member
You might be on to something. One thing I have never used sport or racing mode with my Anafi. Perhaps that is why I don't have problems with my batteries so far. Not saying it will not happen but not overly stressing out my batteries they might be performing better then someone who does not take care of theirs the way they should.
Gipsz Jakab
Well-known member
So it is not the battery firmware but the drone firmware that is causing the error? Then why did Parrot have to upgrade the battery firmware and why did weird warnings come down with landings and drops with 20-80% battery?
Jagerbomb52
Well-known member
Just came in from the back yard. First battery that came with the Anafi.
44°F outside right now. Not to bad of a day. This battery is the one that spent 3 months outside in a tree in the winter in Northern Ontario. The total life percentage of the battery as of today is 87%. It has been charged 68 times. From start to landing it flew 20 minutes and 19 seconds. It used 99% of the battery during this period. It gave a Auto landing message at 12% saying it will auto land in 3 minutes. At 1% the Anafi auto landed.
So this about the 3rd time I have conducted this test over the last 6 months. Never has it tried to auto land at a higher percentage and it has never just dropped and shut off. So either I have one of the better Anafis or there is another reason unknown to us. Some how I don't think we will ever know.
As you can see the battery has seen better days
Duct tape to the rescue
44°F outside right now. Not to bad of a day. This battery is the one that spent 3 months outside in a tree in the winter in Northern Ontario. The total life percentage of the battery as of today is 87%. It has been charged 68 times. From start to landing it flew 20 minutes and 19 seconds. It used 99% of the battery during this period. It gave a Auto landing message at 12% saying it will auto land in 3 minutes. At 1% the Anafi auto landed.
So this about the 3rd time I have conducted this test over the last 6 months. Never has it tried to auto land at a higher percentage and it has never just dropped and shut off. So either I have one of the better Anafis or there is another reason unknown to us. Some how I don't think we will ever know.
As you can see the battery has seen better days
Duct tape to the rescue
ROBANAFI
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I should mention my Drone isn't on the latest firmware yet(i haven't had time to update). So i think its not an issue with the new firmware.
ROBANAFI
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"Auto landing"
The drone is back home
Apart from the broken arm and a a few scuffed props everything seems to be working. Connection, the motors "click" on start up and the gimbal calibrates but i've not tried firing up the motors yet!I might have a look at gluing the arm but a replacement looks more sensible(i'll post photos of the break tomorrow).
The battery firmware was updated (as I recall from the changelog) to improve the reported battery levels - so they changed how the battery level was calculated.
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